U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,164 Sep. 5, 1978 Wuerfel
U.S. Pat. No. 1,181,802 May 2, 1916 Louis H. R. Rogge
U.S. Pat. No. 1,180,947 Apr. 25, 1916 James F. Scott
U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,211 Jul. 21, 1998 Kamimaru
1. Technical Field
ACOFE is a reciprocating internal combustion engine, which operates under almost identical conventional strokes.
2. Background Art
The core novelty of ACOFE is the elimination of the sliding surfaces inside the combustion chamber, inside the intake and exhaust valve guides, and the sliding surfaces of the intake and exhaust valve stems on their corresponding cams. By using the concept of bellows, the inventions U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,181,802 and 1,180,947 have been able to shift the internal sliding surfaces associated with piston and cylinder to an external one. But neither of these prior inventions has been able to eliminate the need for the supporting sliding surface of the cylinder. ACOFE, however, has introduced an ingenious two-bellows structure to suspend the top end of the connecting rod, and completely eliminate the need for a supporting sliding surface. ACOFE uses the same ingenious two bellows structure to suspend the valves of the engine, and by doing so the need for the supporting surfaces of the valve-guides is eliminated. The invention U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,211 has used the concept of solenoid to eliminate the cams. But as is clearly shown in its diagrams, U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,211 still needs the supporting sliding surfaces of the valve-guides. The invention U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,211 has used two separate electric coils for each valve: the first moving coil is the armature that is fastened to the valve-stem, and the second coil is the solenoid, which is stationary. The electromechanical valves in ACOFE do not need armature, each valve system uses only one stationary coil to drive the valve body. The elimination of the armature and the valve-guide in ACOFE allows the weight of the valve to be dramatically reduced, allowing each valve operate at a much higher frequency than what is conventionally possible. In ACOFE a connecting rod is introduced that slightly bends, but do not compress or expand. ACOFE""s connecting rod is different in structure and purpose than the connecting rod in the invention U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,164. The structure of ACOFE""s connecting rod is almost identical to the conventional connecting rod, while U.S Pat. No. 4,111,164 changes the structure completely into a helical spring. The purpose of ACOFE""s connecting rod is to eliminate the joint at the top end of the connecting rod, while the purpose of U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,164 is to create a variable volume. The maximum chamber volume in ACOFE is fixed.
ACOFE is a reciprocating internal combustion engine that operates without the need of oil or antifreeze. The elimination of friction is equivalent to the elimination of some energy loss. Moreover, the contact sliding of piston rings in conventional engines scrapes off any coating that might be applied to the internal surfaces to retard heat transfer, but in ACOFE the coating of the internal surfaces would stay intact retarding heat transfer and producing better efficiency.